IT'S RELEVANT ORIGINAL

Take A Tour of the New Westport Weston Family Y

The new facility to open in early September

“You know when you walk in: there’s life involved here. We think it will be a different way for the community to engage with each other and to engage with us,” said Rob Reeves of the Westport-Weston Family Y.

After 18 months of non-stop construction, and years of political debate: The new Westport-Weston Family Y is just about ready for its debut. It’s moving about a mile-and-half away from its current downtown location to propery that rests along the Saugatuck River, owned by the non-profit for more than 70 years.

To give you a taste of what you can expect, It's Relevant sat down with the leader behind it all.

“I’m Rob Reeves. I’m the CEO of the Westport-Weston Family Y. To take something that was on paper and make it pop out to life is exciting," he siad.

"One of the big things (here) is a place to come in and gather. We have an entry way downtown, but you don’t know where to go when you’re in the area. Now you can in through the lobby - you can see in through the gymnasium and the swimming pool," he described.

And there’s not just one pool..

“This is a 10 lane – 25 yard pool. Then we have a four lane – therapy pool on the other side," he explained.

One thing dramatically different in this complex is the ability to accommodate the disabled. Here, in the pool you might notice these rails, giving those in wheel chairs easy pool accesss.

“It’s called zero depth – you can walk right in or wheel chair right in to three-and-half feet (of water).”

Plus, there are elevators throughout the building and special locker rooms as well.

“This is unique: This is our family locker room. All the adults and children that need to be together can be in this locker room.”

Inside you will see four private changing areas inlcluding toilets sinks and showers. Not far away, you can find four other larger locker rooms, complete with saunas.

Upstairs, you ca find this kids club, so moms and dads can use this gym area without any distraction. Plus, just down the hall you can find three group fitness studios. All this built using energy efficient buildng standards:

“Most new buildings you will find you spend more on utilities than an old building – that’s not the case here," described Reeves.

The complex overall runs 32 acres and by the end of it will cost about 38.5 million dollars. Today, we learned the building will open in early September.